Associate Professor Eric Roberts, PhD
|
|
|
My primary research focuses on reconstructing the sedimentary, tectonic and faunal histories of late Mesozoic and early Tertiary continental basins. The areas of interest for me include: the East African Rift System, in particular the Rukwa Rift Basin in Tanzania; the Eromanga & Galilee basins in Australia; the Kaiparowits Basin in western North America; the James Ross Basin in Antarctica; the Lufeng Basin in China; and a suite of other sedimentary basins in Africa, including the Mana Pools & Mid-Zambezi basins (Zimbabwe), the Congo Basin (DRC), the Algoa Basin (South Africa) and the Taoudeni and Iullemmeden basins (Mali). My research involves facies and provenance analysis (sandstone petrography and detrital zircon geochronology) along with sequence stratigraphy, chronostratigraphy, and lithostratigraphy to interpret and reconstruct tectonic and depositional histories. Moreover, I work in close collaboration with palaeontologists and palaeobotanists to provide geologic context to the floras and faunas preserved within these basins. This holistic basin analysis approach is critical to testing a variety of hypotheses related to past environments and climates, drainage histories, palaeobiogeography, and extinction and evolution of vertebrate and plant communities at the close of the Mesozoic and beginning of the Cenozoic in Gondwana and Laurasia. Through this research, I also maintain and foster collaborative links with industry, including ongoing projects and collaborations in Oil and Gas, coal and diamond exploration.
Other research interests include: 1) vertebrate taphonomy—particularly in relation to basin-scale controls on the preservation and distribution of widespread vertebrate fossil accumulations in the sedimentary record; 2) sedimentology and taphonomy of fossil-bearing Plio-Pleistocene cave deposits in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa; 3) tectono-sedimentary evolution of the East African Rift System and implications for faunal evolution in Africa; 4) stratigraphy and palaeontology of the Upper Cretaceous strata in the Antarctic Peninsula 5) sedimentology, ichnology and taphonomy of mixed carbonate-siliciclastic systems in South Africa and the Great Barrier Reef System in Northern Queensland; 6) high-precision geochronology and correlation of Late Campanian strata and faunas in the Western Interior Basin, North America.
Other research interests include: 1) vertebrate taphonomy—particularly in relation to basin-scale controls on the preservation and distribution of widespread vertebrate fossil accumulations in the sedimentary record; 2) sedimentology and taphonomy of fossil-bearing Plio-Pleistocene cave deposits in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa; 3) tectono-sedimentary evolution of the East African Rift System and implications for faunal evolution in Africa; 4) stratigraphy and palaeontology of the Upper Cretaceous strata in the Antarctic Peninsula 5) sedimentology, ichnology and taphonomy of mixed carbonate-siliciclastic systems in South Africa and the Great Barrier Reef System in Northern Queensland; 6) high-precision geochronology and correlation of Late Campanian strata and faunas in the Western Interior Basin, North America.
